How to Make Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy Work Sharpen your focus towards one particular customer segment that is proving fruitful to you in the current scenario

We all have our share of predicaments in busines, particularly if the business is the B2B kind. If you have jumped into the B2B content marketing fray and are struggling to proliferate your plans, you are not alone. With a plethora of B2B companies driving hard business, the competition is only getting stiffer. And you may very well have become its unwitting victim.

Ask yourself: why is the competition eclipsing you? Think hard and you may realize that the fault could lie in your haphazard approach to create and deliver content. What you need is a strategic framework that facilitates conceptualizing and designing the way you intend do content marketing business.

Let us have a look at some of the core components of developing an effective content marketing strategy:

Define your target segment first

It is not that hard to make your Content Marketing strategy work if it is done after defining the target first. Do not target all the customer segments right at the first instance. Sharpen your focus towards one particular customer segment that is proving fruitful to you in the current scenario. Ensure that all your efforts are focused towards marketing your content to this specific group. Remember, a bird in hand is always better than many on the branch.

Create buyer persona

Marketing is a basic activity carried out with the expectation that there are customers to take it. Without a basic understanding about the customer and their expectations, no marketing strategy can fructify. This logic is also applicable to the domain of B2B Content Marketing. Ascertaining the customer base by undertaking extensive research will complement all efforts taken towards marketing your content. Every buyer is unique and this must act as the edifice while creating buyer persona. Understanding their perception of deliverables matters the most, even if the researching part takes a little bit longer. Creating your buyer persona plays a significant role in providing your customers relevant and value adding content. This would also help retain your customer base which will directly contribute to your ROI .

Focus on Conversion

Now that you know your customer target segment and their exact expectations, it is time to focus on conversion activities. Setting your conversion goals means deciding about the actions you want your customers to take with regard to your content. Your focus must be in making the casual visitor into a commercially value-adding one. Making an ordinary customer a paying one is a crucial step in your content marketing endeavor since it entails financial aspect. Right from making the customer open your mail to attracting them to visit your website to get them to sign up for your services, everything boils down to conversion. Once high levels of affinity is established in the customers' psyche towards your content, they will automatically start downloading bits and pieces from your website, sign up for newsletters or go for those free trials.

Establish point of contact

The next logical step in Content Marketing is to establish method of contact with your identified segment of customers. When you provide impressive content, they will contact your site with the help of search engines, advertisements and online forums. However, it is important that you find effective methods to contact them in set periodicity. You can keep in touch with your customers through tweets, mails and text messages. Remember, not all customers enjoy being inundated by all methods at once. Understand their preference before establishing contact, so your efforts don't transform into a negative advertisement that repels them.

Assess the ROI

And no, it is not the monetary aspect of your efforts, but the actual impact of processes. In a typical Content Marketing scenario, a buyer travels through 5 phases - Unaware, Aware, Interest, Research and Purchase. Assess the efficiency of your strategy customer-wise which will give you a clear picture in terms of customers as well as phases

Are you ready to scale up?

Understand if you

• Can provide good enough content to satiate the need of your customers
• Are ready to re-purpose your content that is lengthy into smaller ones and vice versa
• Are ready to be creative and proactive in your approach to alter your plans

Conclusion

The onus of making your B2B content marketing business a success depends upon how well you strategize and make that strategy work. A thorough assessment of your potential customers and of the kind of content that interests them is of utmost importance for B2B content marketing. This will not only help you attract new customers, but will also make them turn into repeat purchaser. Remember, content is the king only if you present it in a way that appeals and impels discerning readers.